Gallatin County, KY

What the HRSA Data Shows for Gallatin County

Gallatin County, KY — population 8,690 carries 6 active Health Professional Shortage Area designations in the HRSA Data Warehouse: 2 in primary care, 2 in mental health, and 2 in dental. It does not currently hold a Medically Underserved Area designation, though individual HPSAs can still be present at the service-area level. These three HPSA categories are evaluated independently by HRSA, so a county can show heavy pressure on one axis — for example mental-health access — while remaining closer to the provider ratio threshold for primary care.

The county's highest shortage-severity score across the three categories is 23.0, which crosses the 17-point threshold HRSA uses to flag high-priority shortage areas eligible for National Health Service Corps placement and enhanced Medicare reimbursement. Primary-care scoring reached 19.0 (0–25 scale). Mental-health scoring reached 20.0 (0–25 scale). Dental scoring reached 23.0 (0–26 scale). HPSA scores weight the provider-to-population ratio, poverty rate, travel time to the nearest source of care, and — for dental — water fluoridation status. They are recalculated as HRSA updates its quarterly designation cycle.

HRSA lists 6 active (designated) HPSA records tied to Gallatin County, covering the specific facilities, geographies, and population groups that received the designation; the table above shows the most severe. This designation data is the basis for more than thirty federal programs — loan repayment through the National Health Service Corps, Medicare bonus payments, Community Health Center grants, and J-1 visa waivers — which together channel billions of dollars annually to recruit providers into HPSAs. These figures describe structural access to care only; they are not a substitute for medical advice, and patients searching for a specific appointment should contact a provider directly or consult their insurance network.